MLB.com: He's got legitimate power to all fields and his advanced approach at the plate helps him avoid any slumps. Somewhat limited defensively, there's no doubt a team will take him fairly early just to get that bat into its system.

ESPN.com: Cooper has been overshadowed in this draft by the better college corner infield bats, but is still a candidate to go in the first round due to his history and solid plate discipline. At the plate, Cooper has a smooth, easy swing, but opens up his front side early and really collapses his back leg on contact. He's got some raw pull power, but didn't hit for game power with wood on the Cape and projects as more of a hitter for average and doubles power with his current approach. He's a solid defensive first baseman but isn't a candidate to move to another position.

Baseball America: Cooper's hitting ability
stems from strong hands and forearms and excellent hand-eye
coordination more than pure bat speed, and some scouts believe he'll be
more susceptible in pro ball to big velocity because of it. Others
believe his smooth, pure swing will let him catch up to any fastball.
He has a polished, patient approach and absolutely mashes mistakes to
all parts of the park. Cooper's value is in his bat; he's a
well-below-average runner who could become a real baseclogger down the
line. Defensively, he flashes average ability at first, but some scouts
label him disinterested at worst and below-average at best.

Scout.com: Cooper's
hitting ability stems from strong hands and forearms and excellent
hand-eye coordination more than pure bat speed, and some scouts believe
he'll be more susceptible in pro ball to big velocity because of it.
Others believe his smooth, pure swing will let him catch up to any
fastball. He has a polished, patient approach and absolutely mashes
mistakes to all parts of the park. Cooper's value is in his bat; he's a
well-below-average runner who could become a real baseclogger down the
line. Defensively, he flashes average ability at first, but some scouts
label him disinterested at worst and below-average at best. Cooper's
bat could take him into the first round, though an American League club
would be a better fit.

Perfect Game: Cooper is an
elite hitter with a smooth, easy, advanced lefthanded swing. His raw power is
unmistakable, but wasn’t always evident until this year. He’s gotten much
stronger and now projects power to all fields. His bat should play in the heart of any order one day. He was hitting .370 with
19 homers with a week remaining in the regular season, and his home runs were
hit to all parts of the field. He has an excellent feel for hitting Cooper is pretty much
limited to first base defensively because of his lack of speed and quickness,
but he clearly has the bat to play the position. He’s a reliable defender
there, but an above-average arm is pretty much wasted. Brewersfan.net: Cooper has always been known for his smooth lefty swing and ability to
hit for average with good bat speed and a disciplined eye. He has hit for average in two brief appearances on
the Cape, and has really blossomed this spring as his power has jumped,
as his overall production as him poised to be a legitimate player of
the year candidate at the college level. He doesn’t have much speed,
and defensively is best suited for first base although he has been some
outfield in his career. He profiles well at first defensively.MLB.com article on Cooper and thumbnails on the other draftees.

Perfect Game: Wilson was perhaps the biggest
surprise in the Florida high school ranks this spring as he went from a largely
under-recognized junior to a potential top 5 round pick with a scholarship to
Florida waiting for him. Wilson’s game is all about speed. He runs the 60 in
the 6.4 range, is consistently 3.9-4.0 to first base and has excellent outfield
range and instincts. While he doesn’t project much power right now, Wilson has
a good, crisp swing and can get the ball into the gaps. Some teams think he is
too far away right now with the bat to take a chance on, but others feel that
his speed and athletic ability will enable him to develop quickly.

MLB.com: College seniors are always intriguing draftees, largely because
they appear to be easier signs, and Liebel could be among the first to
hear his name called. Long Beach State's Friday starter has competed
well, averaging nearly eight innings per start, despite having just
average stuff across the board. He does have a pretty good idea of how
to pitch and that, along with his competitive nature, should be enough
to get him drafted.

Perfect Game: Liebel was mysteriously passed
over in last year’s draft, even as he went 9-3, 2.84 for Long Beach State and
topped the 49ers in wins. In 101 innings, he walked only 19 while striking out
59. His best work came as a starter late in the season—too late, perhaps, for
scouts to bear down on him. That oversight prompted Liebel to spend last summer
working out and getting stronger. When he came out of the gates this spring
throwing his fastball up to 93 mph, up 4-5 mph from 2007, and immediately
grabbed the Friday job atop a talented Long Beach State rotation, Southern
California area scouts immediately began second-guessing themselves how Liebel
fell under their radar a year earlier. Not only did Liebel throw harder this
spring, but he had excellent command of four pitches—his fastball, slider,
curve and change. Liebel worked in relief his
first 2-1/2 years at Long Beach State and still isn’t overly physical despite
his added strength, but he has a quick, loose arm action and works easily. He
pounds the strike zone with his fastball, which is normally 90-91 mph but
occasionally shows plus velocity. He gets good deception on his tailing,
sinking change, his equalizer pitch. Poised and relaxed, he knows how to pitch
and is not afraid to go after hitters. Outside of Georgia closer Josh Fields,
he may be the best college senior in the draft.

Baseball America: Sobolewski is a draft-eligible true sophomore. He
struggled last summer in the Cape Cod League, where he hit .189 with no
home runs in 39 games. Drafted in the 20th round out of high school by
the Astros in 2006, Sobolewski is still raw at third base and at the
plate. While he has an above-average arm, he has made too many errors
this season, most of them throwing errors because he has a tendency to
drop down and throw across the diamond from a lower arm slot. He does
have the actions and hands to be an above-average fielder if he refines
his technique. At the plate, Sobolewski is strong, as he often hits
cleanup for the Hurricanes, but most of his power is pull-side. As a
sophomore, Sobolewski may be a tough sign, and one more year of college
may be enough to make him a top prospect for next year's draft.

Perfect Game: Few Hurricanes players struck the ball with more
authority during the fall than the draft-eligible sophomore, Alonso and Raben
included. Sobolewski’s strength is hitting the ball the other way but he must
show he can pull it to left and left-center more frequently. At this point, he
doesn’t have legitimate power for a third baseman or corner player but he has
gotten much stronger. Though he hit a respectable .348-8-54 as a freshman, he
struggled at times—especially at making contact as he fanned 57 times. He also
struggled in the field, both catching and throwing the ball. Sobolewski was a
highly-regarded shortstop in high school, but no longer throws well enough or
has the range to play there. He was fielding at a sub-.900 clip after making
the transition to third base and soon spent the latter part of his freshman
season in left field. He still seems best suited for third as he has excellent
feet around the bag and his arm works best there.

Perfect Game: The most interesting thing
about Pastornicky as a prospect is that he’s probably perceived as a
high-energy, high-performance type of player with a lot of polish to his game.
That would be very true, but he’s also probably, and very unfairly, not seen as
a tools type of player, being that he’s a slender 5-foot-11 and 165 pounds and
doesn’t have a flashy game. But Pastornicky’s tools do stand out when you look
at them; he’s a 6.58 to 6.70 runner every time out, throws 91 across the
infield (arm strength that ranks him among the top 10 or so in the country
among shortstops) and even throws 90-plus from the mound. His only tool that
doesn’t rank as major league average or plus is his power. Pastornicky projects
as a leadoff-hitting middle infielder with his instincts and feel for the game,
and he has the tools to do that at the major league level. How he figures out
in the draft will be interesting; his father Cliff played 10 games in the big
leagues with the Kansas City Royals in 1984 and has been a Florida-based scout
for that organization since 1990.

Perfect Game (2005):
Pastornicky has advanced defensive tools, including outstanding arm strength
and soft hands. He’s a 6.92 runner who shows bat speed and solid contact
ability at the plate. He’s the son of former ML infielder and current
Royals scout Cliff Pastornicky.

Perfect Game: Brisker is an excellent athlete
who gave up basketball as a senior to concentrate on baseball. He is a plus
runner with a very good first step on the bases and in the outfield. Brisker
flashes plus bat speed at the plate, although he is inconsistent in his
approach. But he can drive the ball hard to the alleys and projects power in
the future as he learns to get his body into his swing. Brisker was a young
high school senior and won’t turn 18 until late in the summer and that, coupled
with his relative inexperience, makes scouts project him more than most high
school outfield prospects.

I shoulda known this. Dammit. Wallace is gone, what's the next
Wallace-esque thing? David Cooper. He's gonna make a few extra hundred
thou with this pick, and he really can hit. More power than Wallace,
and I'm going to disagree with PHillips here, it's 30+ HR power. Tons
of walks, not as pure a bat as Wallace.

Another example of the danger of wallowing on the verge of 'almost good.' You get to pick from a pile of uninspiring talent. Nothing against Cooper but doesn't exactly profile as a franchise player. Sounds like Overbay v2.0.

Cooper is listed here at 200 lbs. Jamie Campbell said Cooper was 6' even and 170 lbs, which struck me as awfully small for someone with "terrific" power. Even 6', 200 lbs (more probable than 170 lbs) doesn't sound like an especially big University-aged first baseman, though I do recognize that one can hit for power without being built like Delgado.

I agree with dje, Cooper sounds alot like Overbay. I don't hate the pick, but I don't love it either. I don't think that Cooper has the chance to be a perrenial all star. I probably would have taken a shot with someone with more upside, but it definitely beats taking Friedrich.

A so-so pick IMO. The two sourcesI have read on him say his defense is either good or poor so I will split the difference and say it's probably average. An average defensive 1Bman with little wood-bat power is really not what I'd look for in the first round but there wasn't a whole lot available either. He just doesn't seem to have all that much upside. I wonder if they would have taken Lawrie had he not gone the pick before. I am surprised by how many relievers are going in the first round. I understand a time like Detroit taking Ryan Perry, but a team with as many weaknesses as the Mariners taking a relief prospect in the first round? Why Bavesi still has his job is a great mystery to me.

I don't know, but this would worry me. "He's got some raw pull power, but didn't hit for game power with wood on the Cape". I remember when the Tigers drafted Eric Munson who was the biggest power hitting prospect in the draft. Unfortunately, he had "aluminum power" and never panned out as more than a backup catcher.

Very interesting to me is the widely conflict reports on his defense, but I think the most in-depth scouting report was on scout.com

"31 DAVID COOPER, 1B, California Another NorCal product, Cooper
began his college career at Cal State Fullerton, helping lead the
Titans to the College World Series. He had hits in seven consecutive
at-bats in Omaha, earning all-tournament honors, but transferred after
the season back closer to home, instantly becoming Cal's best player.
He's evolved as a hitter since that season, going from two homers as a
freshman to a Pacific-10 Conference-best 19 as a junior. Cooper's
hitting ability stems from strong hands and forearms and excellent
hand-eye coordination more than pure bat speed, and some scouts believe
he'll be more susceptible in pro ball to big velocity because of it.
Others believe his smooth, pure swing will let him catch up to any
fastball. He has a polished, patient approach and absolutely mashes
mistakes to all parts of the park. Cooper's value is in his bat; he's a
well-below-average runner who could become a real baseclogger down the
line. Defensively, he flashes average ability at first, but some scouts
label him disinterested at worst and below-average at best. Cooper's
bat could take him into the first round, though an American League club
would be a better fit."

Baseball America thinks he could rise quickly through the system as a DH.

"You guys are underrating his power big time. He has more HRs and more doubles than Wallace this year. He is a 25-30 HR type guy and Goldstein thinks that he has 30+ HR power"

If you're going to rely solely on college stats (a bad idea in any context) even without adjusting for park and competion, then you can't ignore his wood-bat results. KG may think he has 30HR power but the much wider consensus is that he will hit for average, play acceptable defense and has gap power that may translate to 20-25HR in his peak.

I'm not ragging on him, he's a fine prospect. They did the best with what they had considering they were no high-risk gambles worth taking. I'm concerned that we're going to end up in this same spot next year; a late first round pick after another 'not bad' season.

"but the much wider consensus is that he will hit for average,
play acceptable defense and has gap power that may translate to 20-25HR
in his peak."

How is THAT the wider consensus when there is basically one report questioning his power (stemming from the Cape Cod league) while essentially everything else says that he has plus to plus-plus power and that he can hit the ball out of the park to any part of the field. BA's report states that he "absolutely mashes mistakes to all parts of the park"....that doesn't sound like a Lyle Overbay type who "may" translate to 20-25 HR in his peak type player.

Didn't intend to single you out, I was just making the point that he doesn't profile as a true middle of the order masher. The last of those guys went to Texas. Putting a number to how many HR he will hit is an exercise in futility since anyone with moderate power could fluctuate from 20-40 in any given year. The results you focused on were with aluminum bats, and I don't think you can argue that if there is some question as to how his power would transfer to wood bats.

That said, I'm hoping he makes you look like a genius and he ends up being a productive hitter for many years.

I grew up playing baseball with aluminum bats, but the league I'm in uses wood bats, and I can tell you I haven't noticed any difference when centering(or mostly centering) the ball. I can't imagine this guy has been hitting too many of his home runs off the end of the bat. I imagine that most of these prospects with good bat control won't be affected more than a marginal amount.

Rich Lederer at Baseball Analysts has seen Liebel pitch a lot and this is what he told me:

"I've seen him pitch many, many times. You pretty much have it.
89-92 FB, 79-80 SL last weekend. Was throwing 89-90 in the 8th. He
is more command than stuff and has little projection. I see him as back of
the rotation/6th/AAAA SP or as a middle reliever."

And shortly later the Royals take Melville in the fourth round. I wonder what caused him to fall so far.

Melville is committed to UNC and reportedly told teams that if he wasn't picked mid first round that he would not sign and instead go to UNC. I think after he dropped past the early 20's everyone was afraid of him signing. KC would have to pay him mid 1st money to get him signed.

If that were the case, it would be a great pick. Overbay has delivered about $35,000,000 million of value in his career to date for a cost of just about $7.2 million in his career to date. Put another way, he's delivered well above what the average pick at that stage of the draft would return.

However, from a risk-profile point of view, I'm less enthusiastic. However, I'd rather have a hitter of Cooper's type than a big, free-swinging slugger with more power. Not sure if the numbers bear that out; it's just the kind of hitter I prefer in an organization.

4th rounder Mark(Robert) Sobolewski, 3B from U of Miami R/R 6'1" 200lbs, former middle infielder and from the look of his line in college(326/393/483) the jays might be thinking of moving back to the center of the diamond because I don't think he has a bat that will carry at 3B in the majors

Sobolewski definitely has the bat to stick at third base, unfortunately, he is a draft eligible sophomore and I really doubt he will sign unless we pay above slot which we are not known for doing:

"Sobolewski is a draft-eligible true sophomore, and playing
for Miami has afforded him plenty of exposure this spring. He should be
one of at least seven Hurricanes drafted this June. A Freshman
All-American last season, Sobolewski had a 20-game hit streak last
season and reached base safely in 31 of his team's last 32 games. He
struggled last summer in the Cape Cod League, where he hit .189 with no
home runs in 39 games. Drafted in the 20th round out of high school by
the Astros in 2006, Sobolewski is still raw at third base and at the
plate. While he has an above-average arm, he has made too many errors
this season, most of them throwing errors because he has a tendency to
drop down and throw across the diamond from a lower arm slot. He does
have the actions and hands to be an above-average fielder if he refines
his technique. At the plate, Sobolewski is strong, as he often hits
cleanup for the Hurricanes, but most of his power is pull-side. As a
sophomore, Sobolewski may be a tough sign, and one more year of college
may be enough to make him a top prospect for next year's draft."

another one...

"As an eligible sophomore, it may be difficult to sign Sobolewski as
another year could vault him into the first round and perhaps the top
10. He has above-average power and clean compact swing. While he shows
the ability to spray balls to all fields, he could stand to improve his
approach a bit as most of his power comes when he pulls the ball. In
the field, Sobolewski was inconsistent to say the least. The good news
is that his struggles were primarily throwing issues and further had
nothing to do with his footwork. He has a tendency to drop down and
throw across his body, leading to throws that sailed on him from time
to time. He has the hands, range and arm to stay at third base and
perhaps perform at an above-average level. The Hurricane's clean-up
hitter should garner plenty of attention on draft day, though it
remains to be seen if a team will be able to pry him away. It wouldn't
hurt if Miami were to win a title this year in Omaha."

In a relatively weak class it's tough to hate a 4th round pick. I wasn't excited about it, but the Jays probably see things they can bring out of him.

With a SS and 2 CFs from high school I think it's possible the Jays have decided that the best way to fill the premium defensive positions is to get them from the high school level (Jackson and Eiland last year of course).

Wilson signed a baseball scholarship with the University of Florida during spring break, but he said Thursday "it's all but a done deal" that he would forgo his college eligibility and sign with the Blue Jays.

Wilson said he would accept the slot recommendation signing bonus for the 63rd overall pick, which he said was $644,000.

I know that this comment is par for the course with my usual sparkling level of discourse, but this draft class sucks. I hate almost every pick by everyone - it's time for me to reduce expectations, no?

I agree that it is a poor draft class. I do think that Ricciardi,
Lalonde and company did well; there is a reasonable chance that they
will get two good position players out of Cooper, Wilson, Pastornicky
and Thames.